Here are the latest COVID-19 updates from Japan and beyond:
<March 23, 2022>
- A Japanese health ministry panel approved on Wednesday the administration of third booster shots of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine to children aged between 12 and 17.
- Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday he will instruct his ministers to compile an economic stimulus package in a bid to address the impact on consumers from higher oil and other commodity prices as well as the coronavirus pandemic.
<March 22, 2022>
- A COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency ended Tuesday in all 18 prefectures covered, including Tokyo and Osaka, amid a decreasing trend in the number of new infections.
<March 21, 2022>
- Hong Kong will lift the ban on commercial flights from nine countries on April 1, with the quarantine period for inbound travelers to be halved to seven days, city leader Carrie Lam said Monday.
<March 19, 2022>
- China on Saturday reported two COVID-19 deaths, the first since January last year, as the number of citizens newly infected with the novel coronavirus has been sharply increasing in the country.
<March 17, 2022>
- The government formally decided Thursday to lift all remaining coronavirus quasi-state of emergency curbs in Japan as scheduled next week as the number of new infections has recently been on a downtrend.
- South Korea saw a record-high number of coronavirus cases on Thursday, with more than 600,000 new infections reported in a single day amid the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant.
- Japanese household assets rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier to a record 2,023 trillion yen ($17 trillion) at the end of December, topping the 2,000 trillion yen mark for the first time as the COVID-19 pandemic curbed spending, Bank of Japan data showed Thursday.
<March 16, 2022>
- Japan will end all remaining COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency curbs as scheduled next week as the number of new infections has been trending downward, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.
- Over 40 million Chinese have come under lockdown due to a surge in coronavirus cases as the government in Beijing continues to pursue a radical zero-tolerance policy amid skepticism about its effectiveness in the face of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
- The estimated number of foreigners arriving in Japan in February was 99.4 percent lower compared with the same month in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 at 16,700 people, government data showed Wednesday.
- Major Japanese manufacturers including Hitachi Ltd. and Honda Motor Co. on Wednesday offered pay hikes following annual wage talks with labor unions as their earnings are recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
- New Zealand will reopen its border to Australians in April and international travelers who do not require visas in May, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday, bringing forward the move by several months as the country passes its peak of infections with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - March 12~18
Useful resources for foreign residents and visitors in Japan
- Health ministry call center
COVID-19: 0120-565-653 (toll free)
COVID-19 Vaccines: 0120-761-770 (toll free)
-Interpreters available for English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; for Thai 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; for Vietnamese 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - Health ministry's COVID-19 Vaccine Navigation website
https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/en/ - AMDA Medical Information Center's "Multilingual Consultation Service"
- Available in Simple Japanese and English, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Also available in Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese on designated weekdays. Check schedule here.
03-6233-9266 - Tokyo Metropolitan Government's COVID-19 info
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ - Tokyo Metropolitan Government hotline
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/contacts
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (including weekends and holidays)
0570-550571
- Available via fax for those with hearing impairments
03-5388-1396 - Japan National Tourism Organization's "Guide for when you are feeling ill"
- Multilingual clinic/hospital search available in English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese
https://www.jnto.go.jp/emergency/eng/mi_guide.html - JNTO's "Japan Visitor Hotline"
https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/hotline/
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese 24 hours a day
050-3816-2787
+81-50-3816-2787 (from overseas)